Chad calls for EU deployment as rebels regroup

N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad's President Idriss Deby calledon the European Union on Thursday to deploy a peacekeepingforce urgently to the east after rebels who raided his capitalpulled back halfway towards the Sudan border.

Hundreds of refugees who fled to Cameroon after thefighting in the capital N'Djamena that killed at least 100civilians were returning back across the river border onThursday.

Chadian officials said they routed the rebel attackers.They said the remnants of the rebel column had withdrawn 375miles east to the rugged region around the town of Mongo.

One rebel spokesman, Ali Ordjo Hemchi, said the rebels hadtaken Mongo, but were being bombarded by French warplanes andhelicopters, but there was no independent confirmation of this.

France, which has planes and troops in the central Africanoil producer, has denied any direct role in the combat so far.

The renewed conflict has delayed the deployment of a3,700-strong EU peacekeeping force to eastern Chad to protecthalf a million Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians whohave fled violence spilling over from Sudan's Darfur region.

Relief officials said the unrest threatened to provoke ahumanitarian crisis by blocking aid flights to the east. TheEuropean Union had started deployment of its force butsuspended it almost immediately due to the weekend rebelattack.

"We want to launch a solemn appeal to the European Union,and France ... to make sure that this force is put in place asquickly as possible to lighten the load we are carrying," Debysaid in an interview broadcast on France's Europe 1 radio.

Deby, who accuses Sudan of backing the rebel offensive,said the international community had given Khartoum "the greenlight to destabilise Chad" by not criticising it directly.

The U.N. Security Council issued a non-binding statement onMonday urging member states to support Deby, but it fell shortof France's original motion mentioning Sudan.

Khartoum, which has strongly denied backing the rebels,said on Thursday it had joined Libyan-led mediation efforts andhad been behind the insurgents' decision to withdraw fromN'Djamena.

"Sudan called for evacuation of the opposition fromN'Djamena and the opposition agreed," the powerful head of theintelligence forces Salah Gosh told state Sudan Vision daily.

REBELS ACCUSE "NEO-COLONIALIST" FRANCE

Former colonial power France initially said it was"neutral" as fighting raged at the weekend, but has sincethrown its full weight behind Deby. With warplanes and morethan 1,000 troops stationed in Chad, France will make up thebulk of the EU force.

France's military denies rebel claims that it fought toprotect Deby, but President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday hiscountry would intervene if needed against the insurgents.

In an apparent gesture of gratitude, Deby, a formerFrench-trained helicopter pilot, said he could pardon sixmembers of French charity Zoe's Ark sentenced to eight years inprison by Chad for abducting children, if France requested it.

The rebels, who fought their way into N'Djamena on Saturdaywith a column of 300 pick-ups mounted with cannon and machineguns, have long accused Paris of propping up Deby's 18-year-oldgovernment, which they call corrupt and dictatorial.

"The national armed opposition is more than ever ready anddetermined to oppose all aggression by the neo-colonialistFrench forces and others," the alliance of three anti-Debyrebel groups said in a joint statement.

Aid workers said at least 100 corpses lay in N'Djamena'sthree main hospitals and as many as 700 more people were beingtreated for bullet wounds and injuries from mortar fire.

Firemen and ambulance workers were still picking up bodieson Thursday, as people started to clear up debris from damagedbuildings. Army pick-ups packed with turbaned soldiers spedaround streets littered with burned out vehicles.

Residents said security forces rounded up leading membersof Chad's political opposition on Sunday night, as the fightingin the capital subsided. Human rights groups said on Wednesdaysoldiers were also trying to arrest civil rights campaigners.